The regime has now made it an offence for Rhodesian newspapers or other publications to publish any information - including their names - about people who are deported from the country. The order, issued on 7 October under the Emergency Powers (Maintenance of Law and Order) Regulations, does not apply to foreign correspondents working in the country, but their reports may not be printed inside Rhodesia.
The regime has always refused to explain its reasons for declaring people to be prohibited immigrants or deporting them. In an obvious reference to the recent deportation of Father Pascal Slevin and other Roman Catholic missionaries (see above), a spokesman for the Ministry of Law and Order said that recent press reports depicting "extravagant farewells" to deportees had been calculated to raise "unwarranted sympathy" and had "failed entirely to reflect the deportee in his true colours, that is as a person, usually a foreigner, having no stake in the country, whose conduct has been so anti-Rhodesian that his presence has become untenable." (BBC/GN/T 8.10.77)
In what appears to be an attempt to gain even tighter control of international press and media coverage of the guerilla war, the regime has announced plans to set up a selected corps of "journalists considered by the authorities to serve the best interests of the country" who will receive accreditation as official defence correspondents. More than 50 local and overseas journalists from Britain, Belgium, France, Holland, South Africa, the United States and Rhodesia heard details of the scheme at a press briefing at Combined Operations Headquarters in Salisbury on 10 October. Correspondents were told that they would not be allowed to report on certain weapons used by the Rhodesians or to write about the security forces' counter-insurgency tactics. Accreditation could be withdrawn if additions or alterations were made to copy after it had been cleared by the military authorities. Journalists accredited as resident correspondents (thereby becoming liable for military service at the same time) will be issued with cards on an indefinite basis but will still require prior approval to visit operational areas and will not be attached to military patrols. Other types of accreditation are for locally based non-residents and for roving journalists. (RDM 12.10.77; BBC 12.10.77 reporting Salisbury radio in English 10.10.77).
